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Starbucks, Amazon and Google are amongst a group of large multi-national companies that apparently pay the least tax possible. However, ordinary individuals are in deep trouble, facing fines of at least £100 if they don't submit their tax returns on time.In case anyone was unaware, the 31st of January is the deadline for the submission of online self-assessment tax returns to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs). As the day approaches the majority of ordinary people are once again tightening their belts at the news of the latest government austerity squeeze measures. In the meantime, according to The Independent, Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the internet giant Google, proudly said that 'capitalism' was the term that should be used to describe Google's £2.5 billion tax avoidance on Thursday 13th December. It looks like ordinary folk are doing something wrong.
After all anyone who has been filling in their tax return online lately should have come across one of the questions on page 3, 'Tailor your return', where it asks point blank: 'Were you party to one or more tax avoidance schemes?' Maybe everyone should sign up with one of these schemes (which also indicates there are several of them) and share in the capitalistic party. Quentin Pain of Accountz commented 'Everyone in business is out to create wealth and make profits. That enables companies to develop their products and conduct research and thrive. It's right that Eric Schmidt is working to save his business tax, but if the countries that buy the products are slowly being strangled then in the end there might not be any customers left.'
Whatever the situation of the business owner, it is definitely time to start to organise the accounts (assuming the information was not submitted months ago). Even for those people who have registered with a tax avoidance scheme now is the time to get out those shoe boxes and spreadsheets and get the books in good order. At the time of writing there are still a number of weeks left. For those who are in a real hurry there are a number of reputable accounting programs available on the market that should help with speeding up the data entry. The beauty of accounting software is that once the basics of the package have been mastered the reporting should be more or less instant. So the time spent investing in learning the program should be more than made up in time saved analysing the books.
HMRC can be contacted on 0845 900 0444 and they are open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturdays from 8am to 4pm.
Contact Info:
Name: Quentin Pain
Email: Send Email
Organization: Accountz.com Ltd
Address: Accountz.com Limited, South Fens Business Centre, Fenton Way, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire PE16 6TT
Phone: 01354 691650
Website: http://www.businessaccountz.co.uk
Release ID: 1840
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